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TikTok and Instagram are flooded with reels of food influencers hyping already viral restaurants or bringing hundreds of thousands of eyes to hidden gems. With sauce-stained lips, exaggerated chewing, and that signature hooked finger over their mouth, they urge viewers to “run, don’t walk” to these must-try spots. But how trustworthy are these glowing reviews? Platforms like Yelp and Google Reviews long ago opened the door for anyone with an internet connection to play food critic. But the rise of short-form video has democratized the food-reviewing game to a whole new level. OnTikTok and Instagram, driving engagement is the name of the game, and posting hyperbolized reviews is one way to gain views and grow an audience. It’s a formula that works, but it’s also drawn backlash. This month, the U.K.’s Guild of Food Writers called out these influencers, urging them to offer more “honest” reviews. Vice president of the Guild of Food Writers, Chetna Makan—a London-based food creator herself—told BBC News NI that she “doesn’t trust” the majority of online food videos, largely because it’s become increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine reviews and gushing “collab posts.” But judging by the size of some of their followings, plenty of others do seem to trust these influencers. Right now, perhaps the U.S.’s most famous restaurant critic is a Las Vegas resident named Keith Lee, who has 17 million TikTok followers but no official food or cooking credentials. In the days when legacy media controlled the flow of news and opinions, editors acted as gatekeepers, ensuring content met certain standards. But as Pete Wells, recently retired restaurant critic for the New York Times, told the Washington Post, “The everyman critic is more trusted than somebody who knows what they’re talking about.” Makan said that much of today’s influencer-driven food content is “over the top,” lacking the depth, context, and culinary knowledge traditional food critics bring to the table. More to the point, restaurants frequently invite influencers for free meals in exchange for Instagram posts and TikTok videos. Beyond free meals, creators also can land lucrative brand deals, in which companies pay them directly to feature and promote products. According to Makan, some influencers are “supporting every brand under the sun.” While the future of TikTok in the U.S. may still be in limbo, there’s no doubt that influencers and the platforms they populate will continue to play a huge role in food media. And as Makan bemoaned, “There are fewer food critics in print media because there is not much print media left.” View the full article

Intel‘s promised $28 billion chip fabrication plants in Ohio are facing further delays, with the first factory in New Albany expected to not be completed until 2030, local media outlet The Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday. The first factory will begin operations sometime shortly thereafter in either 2030 or 2031, the report said, citing the chipmaker. Shares of the company, which originally scheduled to begin chipmaking in Ohio factories in 2025, were up more than 5%. Intel has been cutting capital expenses after its expensive bid to become a contract chip manufacturer for other companies, in a move to restore its lost glory, strained its balance sheet. The changes were made so Intel can align its factory operation with market demand and better “manage capital responsibly”, the report cited Naga Chandrasekaran, general manager of Intel Foundry Manufacturing, as saying in a message to workers. The company’s second Ohio factory will not be completed until at least 2031 and will begin running in 2032, according to the report. Intel did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last year, the company laid off 15% of its workforce, suspended dividend and initiated an extensive cost-savings plan involving massive cuts to its capital expenditure in the coming years. Its finance chief David Zinsner told Reuters last month that the company’s goal was to ensure operating expenses were at roughly $17.5 billion for 2025. —Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. QLED TVs are a step above budget LEDs and a step below premium OLEDs. One example is the 65-inch QLED Samsung TV Q60CB, which sits at a surprising price of $492.68 (originally $947.99) after a nearly 50% discount. This is the lowest price this TV has been since its release according to price tracking tools.ok! SAMSUNG 65" Class Q60CB QLED 4K Smart TV Screen size: 65 in, Platform: Tizen Resolution: 4K, Display: QLED, Refresh rate: 60 Hz, Aspect: 16:9 $492.68 at Walmart $947.99 Save $455.31 Get Deal Get Deal $492.68 at Walmart $947.99 Save $455.31 For those who are willing to pay a bit more than a budget LED but don't want to spend a ton, the 65-inch Q60CB is a perfect middle ground. Like all QLED TVs, you'll notice a difference in colors compared to budget TVs, with deeper blacks and a wider range of colors. However, this TV won't have local dimming technology you'll find in Hisense U7N or the TCL QM7, but that's why you're saving money. Some other things this TV will lack compared to newer or higher end QLEDs are HDMI 2.1 bandwidth (if you're not a gamer this won't make a difference) and variable refresh rate (VRR) support—again, mainly for gamers but also for streaming content with inconsistent frame rates. Gamers will be happy to know that this TV has a low input lag of 9 ms. Because this is a smart TV, you'll have the Tizen smart platform to download apps. If you're going to watch SDR content, the peak brightness on the Q60CB will be strong, making it able to handle viewing in bright rooms, plus the screen has good reflection handling. HDR content won't look as bright because of the lack of local dimming, but in dark rooms you'll still be able to enjoy the QLED picture quality. View the full article

Ongoing tariff threats from Washington and potentially sweeping government job cuts have darkened consumers’ mood and may be weighing on an otherwise mostly healthy economy. Data released Friday showed that consumers slashed their spending by the most since February 2021, even as their incomes rose. On a positive note, inflation cooled, but President Donald Trump’s threats to impose large import taxes on Canada, Mexico, and China—the United States’ top trading partners—will likely push prices higher, economists say. Some companies are already planning to raise prices in response. Americans cut their spending by 0.2% in January from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday, likely in part because of unseasonably cold weather. Yet the retreat may be hinting at more caution by consumers amid rising economic uncertainty. “The roller coaster of news headlines emanating from Washington D.C. is likely going to push businesses to the sidelines for a time and even appears to be impacting consumers,” said Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander, in an email. The reduction in consumer spending — coupled with a surge of imports in January, also reported Friday, as companies likely sought to front-run tariffs — led the Federal Reserve’s Atlanta branch to project that the economy would shrink 1.5% at an annual rate in the January-March quarter, a sharp slowdown from the 2.3% growth in the final three months of last year. Most analysts still expect the economy to expand in the first quarter, but at a much slower pace. Stanley lowered his estimate for first-quarter growth to just 1.25%, from about 2.25%. Inflation declined to 2.5% in January compared with a year earlier, down from 2.6% in December, the Commerce Department said Friday. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices dropped to 2.6%, the lowest since June, from 2.9%. Economists noted that inflation would likely keep cooling, but the progress could be upended by tariffs. Trump said Thursday he would impose 25% duties on imports from Canada and Mexico, though just 10% on oil from Canada. He also said he wanted to double the current tariff on imports from China to 20%. Trump is also calling for widespread layoffs of federal workers, which could cause hundreds of thousands of job losses and potentially lift the unemployment rate. Randy Carr, CEO of World Emblem, says the tariffs, if imposed, will force him to raise prices and cut jobs. World Emblem makes patches, labels and badges for companies, universities and law enforcement agencies. The firm has factories in Georgia and California but it makes about 60% of its products in Mexico. Carr said if the 25% import taxes are imposed, he expects to raise prices by 5% to 10%. He also plans to cut “a handful” of jobs among the 500 workers his company has in the United States to help absorb the rest of the costs. Carr said he would also cancel about $9 million in planned investments in artificial intelligence and online commerce. “It’s so annoying,” he said. “Right now you have this volatility, and so you really can’t plan anything. You just got to wait until we get a final verdict from from the administration. It’s definitely not punishing Mexico, it’s punishing us.” The inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve said in January they planned to keep their key short-term interest rate on hold, at 4.3%, to slow borrowing and spending enough to lower inflation back to their 2% target. The Fed’s elevated rate has contributed to higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. The Fed prefers Friday’s inflation measure to the more widely-known consumer price index, which rose for the fourth straight month in January to 3%. Friday’s gauge calculates inflation slightly differently: For example, it puts less weight on the costs of housing and used cars. Inflation spiked in 2022 to its highest level in four decades, propelling President Donald Trump to the White House and leading the Fed to rapidly raise interest rates to tame prices. It has since fallen from a peak of 7.2%, and some economists expect it could fall closer to 2% in the coming months, absent tariffs. “The inflation data could be distorted higher at exactly the time when the Fed would otherwise be in a position to declare a win,” Stanley said. One other bright spot in the report was that incomes jumped 0.9% in January from December, fueled in part by a large annual cost of living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries. Yet Americans spent less anyway, in particular on cars, where purchases fell sharply. Some consumers could be trying to save money after splurging during the holiday shopping season. Credit card debt surged in December, economists noted. A big concern right now is whether tariffs will push up inflation, or slow the economy, or — in a particularly toxic combination — both. Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Fed’s Kansas City branch, said Thursday he has become “more cautious” about inflation, in part because Americans are expecting higher prices in the coming months. But he also said discussions with businesses in his district “suggest that elevated uncertainty might weigh on growth.” A weaker economy would normally lead the Fed to cut rates, but if inflation remains a threat, it would likely keep rates unchanged. Many toy companies had expressed relief when Trump announced only a 10% increase in tariffs on products from China because they thought they could share the extra costs with retailers. But a 20% tariff means that many will have no choice but to raise prices. Around 80% of toys sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to industry reports. Curtis McGill, CFO of small toy maker Hey Buddy Hey Pal, called the move “a nightmare scenario.” McGill had just confirmed a price for a toy with one major retailer Wednesday, but then had to withdraw it after he heard about the tariffs. For the year-end holiday season, he estimates his toys will see a 10% price increase. And Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, last week cited uncertainty about the health of the American consumer as it provided weaker-than-expected sales growth estimates for this year, sending shares lower. Worries about tariffs pushing prices higher have sent consumer confidence plunging, unwinding the modest gains that had occurred after the election. —Christopher Rugaber and Anne D’Innocenzio, AP business writers AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report. View the full article

California leads the nation with over 1.5 million at-risk properties, but many threatened homes sit east including $68 billion worth of Florida real estate. View the full article

Nexpoint Real Estate Opportunities has now made its own bid for the REIT, just days prior to a special meeting to vote on the merger with Ready Capital. View the full article

Dek: The health supplement company counts investors like Lewis Hamilton and Alex Honnold. Kat Cole is no stranger to a career pivot. At Hooters, she went from waitress to vice president as she worked her way up the restaurant chain’s corporate ladder. Then, over the course of more than 10 years at Cinnabon parent Focus Brands, she built a career selling sweet treats to consumers. In 2024, Cole made the leap from selling fast food to health supplements by becoming CEO of AG1 (formerly known as Athletic Greens), which sells a green multivitamin and nutrient powder. Valued at $1.2 billion in 2022, AG1 has been endorsed by athletes like Olympic runner Allyson Felix and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, as well as an endless roster of wellness and fitness influencers. (Some doctors have questioned the need for supplements like multivitamins altogether). Cole spoke to Most Innovative Companies host Yasmin Gagne about growing AG1’s business, the brand’s Ozempic opportunity, and whether she thinks it will ever end up in the grocery aisles. Listen to our conversation with Cole and a segment with Ankler Awards Editor and Prestige Junkie host Katey Rich, who explains how studios have conducted their Oscar campaigns this year. https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-studios-navigate-the-oscars-race/id1576874503?i=1000694523411 How does a former fast food executive come to run a health company? There’s a few ways to look at this. One is just the journey that I’ve gone on as a woman, as a mom, and over time how nutrition and health has become more important to me personally. We’re also so much more informed now. Even people who are in their thirties are thinking of healthspan and nutrition. There are things, like my mom getting breast cancer when my kids were very small and she was starting her business, or when I had my kids at 39 and 41 after a few miscarriages in between, that put nutrition and health more squarely in my focus as an individual. Health also became a bigger part of one where I believe consumers were going and therefore what the market opportunity and business would be. I am also a leader experienced running companies at scale, and 10 years ago there weren’t a lot of scaled healthful nutrition companies that made sense for someone like me to manage. Now AG1 is big enough for me to come in and lead this chapter. Do you have any guilty pleasures? I used to say everything in moderation. Now I think that phrase, in some cases, has been used to the extreme where in aggregate, a few things in moderation are no longer moderation. I think very seriously about what my kids see me eat and how we make decisions when I treat myself. But I am a human, not a robot. I treat myself once in a while with an ice cream or a cookie—I have a 5 and a 7-year-old During COVID, sales of multivitamins and supplements in general increased by 50% between 2018 and 2022. AG1 is 15 years old—how do you compete with the explosion of newer brands in the sector? In any market, the presence of growth and competition is an indicator of consumer demand. So as it relates to health and wellness, if there are more consumers demanding more options, then that means those consumers are going on a health awareness journey. As a businessperson, that means I’m in the right space. That said, consumers have more options. It can get tougher to appreciate the distinction between those options. So when I think about the things that are required to stand out today that may not have been on customer’s minds as much 10 years ago. That’s things like human clinical trials and research for supplements that is not required of the industry, but is what we have invested in for years. I think about third-party certifications—we’ve been NSF[-certified] for sport for eight or nine years, which is a third-party certification that not only verifies that what’s on the label is in the product, it also ensures there are no contaminants or doping agents. We pay a third party to keep our product all the way through the supply chain in check. Those are things we’ve always done, but years ago we actually didn’t brag about it. We didn’t market it because there was so much demand. Now we are showing proof of the third party studies we do. It’s a different approach to education information and go to market. I was surprised to find out there’s an even gender split among AG1 customers. I was surprised because I assumed that most would be men into biohacking. I assumed that as well when I was an early customer. I thought I was this outlier lady. Once I got into the business and saw the demographic split, I wanted to accelerate that shift to a more female customer base. When I joined, it was like 40% or trending that way, and now it’s 50-50. One reason [for your misconception] might be that some of our more popular creator partners thought leaders, academics, people with big podcasts, or platforms were male. The reality is women—and this has been accelerated by COVID—want to live long and strong. It’s not about being frail or delicate, it’s about fuel, it’s about strength, it’s about power and nutrition. What I see in our customers is the fastest growing customer group by age is 45-plus. As we get older, we age into new reasons to need to supplement and want to supplement an already healthy lifestyle, and there are new ways to afford a premium product. Our younger consumers tend to be athletes and fitness enthusiasts who really value their nutrition and take it more seriously. That has evolved over time. Then I started interviewing our customers, our female customers in particular, in the early years when I joined. What I found is they had heard about it from a partner, a trainer, a physician. Their recommender tended to be male in those earlier years. But then they didn’t have as many options being marketed to them as we have now. Now we’re in an interesting space where our split is 50-50 both for existing customers and new ones joining us, but women in particular are so marketed to in this space. It’s confusing. It’s difficult to know what to trust, and we have so many distinct life stages, from pre and postnatal, perimenopausal, menopausal, postmenopausal. There’s a lot of support that can come from nutraceuticals or nutrients to help with those life stages. So now the job we need to do for our female customers is being really clear where we fit into their stack and explain why they should trust AG1 in the confusing landscape of supplements. At Focus Brands, you brought brands like Cinnabon to different sections of the grocery aisle, with products stocked in the snacks section, and the frozen food section, for instance. Are you going to bring the same playbook to AG1? The core AG1 is this daily health drink in a powder form that people mix on their own in water or put in their smoothies. Retailers love this idea. It’s a very straightforward supply chain. It’s shelf-stable in its packaging, and there is built-in demand that is not necessarily being fully realized by the e-commerce platform. So retailers love the idea of a brand people know but haven’t yet tried. There’s brand awareness, product fit, and the format makes sense. You can imagine some retailers that have a heavy inclination toward sampling and education and letting people try and learn about a product before they buy. That’s the opposite of our current model. If you hear about it and you go online, the best value is to subscribe. So you’re actually subscribing before you try retail. Some of the retailers can help us reach a customer that we haven’t been able to reach. AG1’s valuation—$1.2 billion—is a huge number for a CPG company. And I think we’ve seen a lot of CPG companies struggle to live up to that kind of valuation. You have investors, including Lewis Hamilton and Alex Honnold, who are probably curious when they’re going to see a return. Is the company ever going public? I won’t speak to what the particular outcome is. That valuation was on $160 million in revenue we did that year. January 2022 was peak market fervor, there was a lot of froth. However larger marquee investors who came to the table are supersmart. They saw the fundamentals of the business. We were $160 million in revenue that year, growing at hundreds of percent with an incredible body of opportunity in front of the business. So if you look at what’s happened since then, we were at $160 million at the end of 2021, we’re projecting $600 million in revenue now. We’ve well over 3X the business. So even if valuations have come down to earth a bit, the business has grown unbelievably. And so our investors are very happy. Do you plan on launching more AG1 products? Our customers have asked us to launch so many things, but if we did it, it would create confusion. AG1 is foundational nutrition. It’s this idea that first and foremost, the best driver of health from a nutrition perspective is whole foods. Then this idea of something called a foundational nutrition layer, which essentially is nutrients and gut health support. Foundational nutrition is an idea that there is such a thing as a group of supplements that help most people cover many [health] gaps. It’s like the future of what the multivitamin was supposed to be, except no one takes a multivitamin and says, “my digestion’s better.” No one takes a multivitamin and says, “I feel more energy.” But they do with AG1 because it’s more comprehensive. This idea of having a foundational routine is the base of the business. As we innovate products, the question is: what do our customers need from us? And I’ll just give you a few examples. Might they be at different life stages? You can imagine what some of those might be that emulate some of the journey multivitamins. View the full article

An unsubstantiated online theory has recently taken hold, claiming that family vloggers are fleeing Los Angeles to escape newly introduced California laws designed to protect children featured in online content. In recent years, several states have introduced new legislation aimed at protecting child influencers from exploitation. In September 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom, with support from former child star Demi Lovato, signed two key bills designed to “ensure children and teenagers who perform in online content are protected from financial abuse.” One of the most important bits of the new legislation “establishes financial and legal protections for minors featured in monetized online content (i.e. child vloggers) by mandating that their parent or guardian set aside a percentage of their earnings in trust accounts.” With the passing of the law, California became the third state in the country to legislate protections for influencer kids, joining Illinois and Minnesota. Attention has now shifted to influencers whose children feature heavily in their content, some of whom have made seemingly abrupt moves across the country. Videos speculating about the real reasons for these relocations have gone viral, racking up millions of views. But the influencers themselves insist the moves have nothing to do with California’s new laws. Over the past year, several high-profile family influencers have either relocated from California to Tennessee or announced plans to do so. This includes the LaBrant family, who have 12.8 million YouTube subscribers; TikToker Cecily Bauchmann, who has 2.2 million followers; and Brittany Xavier, who has 5.1 million followers on TikTok. “I feel like that’s a little suspicious,” one TikTok creator posted. “I wonder how many of those are a direct correlation to the fact that now they have to pay their children.” All of the families have publicly denied the new California law influenced their move. Fast Company has reached out to the LaBrants, Bauchmann, and Xavier for comment but has not heard back as of publication. After users began flooding Xavier’s social media posts with comments regarding this theory, the influencer took to TikTok to shut down the rumors. “It has been a wild week on TikTok,” she says into the camera as she does her makeup. She goes on to cite a mold issue in their rental home as the reason for their hasty relocation. “The assumption that we moved to avoid paying our children is so laughable,” she says. “My income doesn’t depend on if my kids are in my videos or not. But we’ve always made sure to set them up financially regardless.” However, many in the comments remain unconvinced. “‘Found mold’ = laws changed,” one person wrote. Another added: “Brittany the likes and replies aren’t helping the cause.” Another theory is that influencers are leaving California due to its political leanings. Xavier herself hinted at political motivations when responding to a comment suggesting she “wanted a red state”: “CA leadership is a mess at the moment, they need help. Hoping here has competent leadership, we shall see.” View the full article

Microsoft Edge continues to position itself as the sensible, performance-centric alternative to Chrome, free of the bloat that Google's continual feature creep can sometimes result in. Now, it seems, the company is also coming after other browsers like Opera GX, as it's just copied one of that browser's most useful features. As reported by Windows Latest, Edge has recently added a new Resource Controls feature, which lets you severely limit how much RAM the browser can use. This can be useful while gaming (or performing other demanding tasks), and you can even set it to only limit RAM while you're in-game. You can give the browser access to as little as 1 GB of memory, too, so you can get especially stingy here, but note that doing so will limit you to about five active tabs while browsing modern websites. Pages might also take longer to load, especially if they have elements like video on them. Still, that might be worth it if you're really starved for RAM while running Edge in the background. Let's say you have 16GB of RAM and you're in the middle of a game. You could then limit Edge to about 4GB of max RAM usage, which should be enough to allow you to quickly check emails or a walkthrough without hurting your gaming performance. While Resource Controls has been in beta before, Microsoft is seemingly now rolling it out to the stable build of Edge for Windows, so everyone should have access to it now (or soon). To find it, first first update your browser to the latest version (under Settings > About Microsoft Edge), then click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and navigate to System and Performance using the sidebar that pops up. Here, scroll down to Manage Your Performance and toggle on Resource Controls. Credit: Khamosh Pathak You'll see a RAM slider that ranges from 1GB to however much memory your PC has installed. Choose the amount you want— Edge will warn you if your choice will slow down your browser, but it won't stop you. Finally, choose if you want to limit RAM only when you're PC gaming, or always. For convenience, I prefer the former—I don't really need it limited when I'm outside of a game. View the full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's decision to drop its enforcement action against the credit reporting bureau marks the eighth lawsuit dropped by the agency in recent days. View the full article

Trump wants to make English the official language of the U.S.—and is using an executive order to deliver the action, White House officials tod CNBC on Friday. This marks the first time in the history of this country that it will have an official language. Trump’s order rescinds a 25-year-old directive from former President Clinton, which required federal agencies to provide services for those with limited English proficiency. According to a summary of the report shared with CNBC, agencies will not be forced to abandon their current policies. “Agencies will have flexibility to decide how and when to offer services in languages other than English to best serve the American people and fulfill their agency mission,” the summary states. However, the move will encourage “new Americans to adopt a national language that opens doors to greater opportunities.” Trump’s latest order comes amid a swift crackdown on illegal immigration since he took office. Trump deployed additional troops to the U.S. southern border, suspended entry to the U.S. for all undocumented immigrants seeking asylum, and expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) authority. The administration has not only encouraged more deportations, but is allowing officers the power to conduct raids in areas that were previously deemed off-limits, such as schools, hospitals, even houses of worship. As the administration has been working to deport more undocumented immigrants, the numbers haven’t yet topped Biden’s deportation numbers. According to a recent Reuters report, Trump’s deportation numbers are averaging less than Biden’s monthly average during his last year in office. Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month—substantially less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals during Biden’s last year in office. Sources told NBC that Trump has expressed anger that deportations have been taking so long. And last week, amid chatter of the lower-than-anticipated numbers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Caleb Vitello was reassigned. English is by far the most common language in the U.S., but more than 350 other languages are spoken, according to USA.gov, a truth Trump has often lamented. “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language,” Trump said at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “These are languages, it’s the craziest thing, they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.” View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Running is hard. Sticking to a training plan is hard. But knowing that you have a race coming up is a great motivator to get you out on the road when you’d rather be watching TV. If you’ve never run a race before, putting one on your calendar might seem scary: Will I feel out of place? What should I wear? How long is a 5K anyway? (It’s 3.1 miles.) I remember being nervous for my own first 5K. Actually, I considered signing up for probably half a dozen before I worked up the nerve to actually do it. I actually signed up for a 10K first, which was probably just a way to put it off even further; I survived the 10K, just barely, and was still nervous for my 5K a few months later. But in the years after that, I came to love the 5K. It's a race you can do on a Saturday morning and still have the rest of the day ahead of you. Most of them only cost about 25 bucks to enter, and they run the gamut from low-key small races to big ones with practically a whole festival occurring at the start line. Let’s warm up those cold feet and demystify what will actually happen at your first race, and what you can do to prepare. How do I know when I’m ready to sign up for a 5K race? There’s a real simple answer for this. If you’re starting to wonder whether you’re ready to take on a race, you already are. So go ahead and sign up, already. (I’ll wait.) A 5K, or five-kilometer, race is the perfect distance for beginners. It’s about three miles, which means the average person could walk that distance in about an hour. Most 5K races encourage walkers as well as runners to join, so you don’t have to worry about standing out for being “slow.” You could literally walk the whole thing and blend right in. Races are more fun and more welcoming than newbies often realize. Even if you aren’t normally the competitive type, the energy and atmosphere of race day can make for a great experience. A race is a great test of your physical and mental strength. Any old training run can be a good one or a bad one, but your first race day will be one to remember, no matter what happens. You’ll have a little extra motivation to push the pace, and you may be pleasantly surprised at what you can do. What’s a good 5K time to aim for?Since this is your first race, your goal should be just to have a good time. Finish the race, take note of your time, and use that as a baseline to improve on next time. There is no such thing as a “bad” time for your first 5K. But if you’d like to have a personal time goal, look back at your training runs. Have any of them been 3.1 miles or longer? If so, use your pace from those runs to calculate the 3.1 mile equivalent. (For example, if you ran 3 miles in 32 minutes, that works out to a 10:40 pace, which is 33:08 for a 5K.) You can do that math with a pace calculator like this one. Aim to beat your best training time on race day. That said, you’ll want to check whether your race’s course is similar to the terrain you’ve been training on. If you’ve been running on mostly flat roads, and the race website promises a “fast and flat” course, great. But if the race course is described as “challenging,” or if it’s on trails, you can expect some hills that will slow you down. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Can I walk during a 5K race? Absolutely! Not only are some people walking the whole thing, the point of a race is just to cover the distance as fast as you can. The faster runners will run the whole time, but plenty of middle-of-the-pack folks will mix in some walking. My first 5K, I couldn’t keep up a steady pace and ended up walking a lot more than I wanted. I still finished, though, and although I don’t recall my time I remember being pleasantly surprised by it. Definitely do not think of walking as shameful. We all do what we need to do to cover the distance. Think of walking as a tool that can reduce fatigue while still moving you closer to the finish line. Use it as much as you need. Will I get a medal?This depends on the race. Usually, at small races like a local 5K, medals are only for the top finishers—so, no, most 5K runners will not get a medal. If you're hoping to get a medal just for finishing the race—called a finishers' medal—those are usually reserved for longer races like marathons and half-marathons, where finishing is considered to be an accomplishment in itself. That said, there are 5K races that promise all participants a cool medal, so keep an eye out for those if that’s your kind of thing. In most 5K races, awards are given to the overall winners and the age group winners. Decisions about awarding medals are up to the race organizers, but a typical selection goes like this: Overall winners are usually the first three men and first three women to cross the finish line (there may be a cash or other prize in addition to a medal), and then age group medals are given to the top three men and women in each age group. The age groups will vary: Some races will have 30 to 39 as a single age group, while others will break it into 30 to 34 and 35 to 39. Check out the previous year’s results to see how competitive your age group tends to be. Who knows: If you’re a fast beginner, you might medal at your first race! How do I train for a 5K? For your first 5K, any amount of running you do will get you ready. If you’re looking for a general guideline, here’s a basic structure that will work (it’s pretty much the same as what I recommend for beginning runners regardless of goals): Three runs per week 20 to 30 minutes per run (can be a mix of running and walking) …for about two months before the race Here’s an example of a training plan along those lines, meant for absolute beginners. Couch-to-5K is another beginner program, which starts with a mix of running and walking and gradually phases out the walking. If you’re more experienced, you may like this intermediate 5K program, which includes five days of running per week. The runs are still fairly short, but they include some speedwork (fast intervals) and a weekend long run that ranges from five to seven miles. What happens on race day? First, you’ll want to sign up for the race ahead of time. At some local races, you may be able to walk up to a table on race morning and hand over cash for your entry fee. I prefer to sign up online to make sure I’ll have my spot. (If they offer a free t-shirt, they may not guarantee shirts to late entries.) The day before the race, there may be an option for “packet pickup.” It’s called a packet because you’re often given an envelope or swag bag that includes coupons, flyers about other races, and maybe some free samples of products or other items. But the most important part of the packet is your race bib, which is a piece of tear-proof paper with a number on it. There is usually a timing chip glued to the back. Make sure you have this pinned to your shirt when you’re running the race. On race morning, aim to get to the start line at least half an hour before the race; earlier is better. A typical race morning routine goes like this: Wake up, have coffee and/or whatever breakfast you can stomach. Maybe bring a snack for the road. Drive/travel to the race start (aim to arrive 30 to 60 minutes before the official start time). Pick up your bib if you haven’t already. Pin it to your shirt. Put any other items from the packet in your car or use the bag drop service if they offer one. Warm up. Take a walk or go for an easy, short jog. Stretch if you normally stretch before runs. Listen carefully for an announcement that you should start lining up for the start. Run the race! After you finish, rest as needed, grab a snack (snacks are almost always provided), and retrieve your bag if you left it at the bag drop. Stick around for the award ceremony, if desired. Go home and have a nice meal. And maybe a nap. What should I eat before a 5K? First, remember the number one rule: nothing new on race day. This is not the time for a new pre-workout, or for drinking coffee if you normally don’t, or for trying the breakfast your friend swears by. Eat whatever you can stomach. Good options will be mainly carbs, and the closer you are to the race start time, the smaller the meal should be. Classic runners’ breakfasts include: Toast or a bagel, maybe with a thin smear of peanut butter A banana A Clif bar or other energy bar that is mostly carbs (not a low-carb protein bar) A muffin, croissant, or cookie Yogurt, with or without fruit What should I wear to a 5K race? Your regular running clothes will be fine, but there are a few extra considerations. First, where will you put your bib? You're usually asked to pin the bib with your race numbers to the front of your shirt. If you'll be layering up, decide which layer gets the bib. You can also pin your bib to your pants or shorts, as long as the race rules allow. If you want to be fancy, you can buy a race belt that holds your bib on without safety pins. Second, about those layers. If it's a chilly day, you may be waiting around a bit before the start, and then you'll warm up when you're running. So you may want to have a long-sleeved layer that you can hand to a friend (if you have a friend staying behind as a spectator) or that you can tie around your waist as needed. Whatever you do, make sure your bib is visible. How do I calm pre-race jitters? If you’re nervous, just remind yourself that it’s normal to be nervous. Nervous and excited are two sides of the same coin. Think of those jitters as your body amping itself up to be able to give the race everything you’ve got. That warmup walk or jog will help you to feel more comfortable. Once the race has started, you’ll feel a lot more comfortable, mentally (even if you’re more uncomfortable, physically). The best way to deal with pre-race nerves is to plan ahead: Know where you’ll go and what you’ll do. Practice your pre-race breakfast and warmup on a training day. And just remember why you’re there. Your real goal is to have fun, to learn what it’s like to run a race, and to find out what kind of 5K time your body is capable of on this particular day. There’s no way to really fail at this. Keep a positive attitude, and if you decide you like racing but you weren’t happy with your time, you can always run another race later. How fast should I run my 5K? You may be tempted to run as fast as you can from the start, but take it easy. You don't want to go out too fast and then tire yourself out. Start at a slightly slower pace than you think you should. After the first mile, you can speed up if you're still feeling good. I like to think of the first half of the race as a chance to conserve energy that I can spend in the second half. The closer you get to the finish line, the more you can speed up. What’s a good heart rate for race day? This one is for the folks who train by heart rate. You probably have some numbers that you’re used to seeing on your training runs. The most important thing to know here is that your heart rate doesn’t matter on race day. And it probably won’t match the numbers you’re used to seeing. First, your heart rate increases when you’re nervous. The start-line adrenaline will likely have you in zone 3 or 4 when you’re running zone 2 pace. Do not waste time trying to get your heart rate down into a normal zone. Second, a race is supposed to be hard! You’re going to be running faster, for longer, than you ever were in your training. Your heart rate may shoot sky-high. It would not be unusual to see your heart rate in zone 4 for the first two miles and zone 5 in the third. That’s OK! You can do this! If your legs are still moving, you’re doing okay. Try to feel for a “redline” where if you went any faster, you wouldn’t be able to sustain it, but at the current level you feel like you can at least finish this mile, or this half-mile, or this minute. Just keep doing one more, and soon you’ll be finishing with a smile on your face. Or a grimace, but it will turn into a smile once the accomplishment sinks in. I promise. View the full article

Do you know how many pens are in the average American household? The answer is 114—and Gonzalve Bich, CEO of Bic, the French manufacturing giant for pens, lighters, shaving razors, and more, is likely one of the few people in the world to know that. That’s because it’s his job. As the 46-year-old chief executive of the company that was originally founded by his grandfather in 1945, Bich also likely has intimate knowledge of how many disposable razors the typical American uses every year, and how many lighters we burn through as well. But he’s also ready to hang it all up at a relatively young age. In December, Bich announced that he would step down by September, and make way for a new CEO to assume the company’s reins. And while many business or political leaders are seemingly unwilling to retire, even at much more advanced ages—President Trump is 78, President Biden was 82 when he left the White House, and Warren Buffett is 94, to name a few—Bich, a relative spring chicken, is ready to focus his energy in other areas. From “sell more pens” to “a human expression company” Bich tells Fast Company that he feels that age 46 “sounded better to try something else and reinvent myself,” adding, “I did a lot, and I think that there are other opportunities I’m equally excited about. “I joined this business over 20 years ago as a family member and held a lot of different positions,” he says. “When I became CEO, I wanted to transform the business and needed to.” Bich notes that when he assumed control of the company, nearly everything was trending in the wrong direction, and that interestingly enough, Bic never really had an overarching business strategy—so, he set about implementing one, allowing that to be his legacy at the company. “We never had a strategy. Every year, it was just ‘grow,’ but there was no concerted plan to take the organization forward in terms of growth,” Bich says. And that in terms of overall goals, he says Bic was merely looking to “sell more pens, or open another factory.” So, he decided to “reimagine” the company’s verticals; and over the past several years, he was able to turn Bic from “being a pen company to being a human expression company.” That included strategic acquisitions in some surprising areas, such as the acquisition of Tangle Teezer, a hairbrush company, and Tattly, a temporary tattoo brand. Tattoos are an area that Bich is passionate about, and as Bic digs into the temporary tattoo space, it will offer an expanding range of offerings, including temporary tattoos that can last from a few hours to several weeks. It’s that type of diversification that’s helped put Bic in a better financial position and helped Bich become more comfortable with the idea of allowing the company to find a successor. “Today, if I hit ‘pause’ on the movie, Bic is a dynamic organization with people who are highly capable and a brand that is closer to consumers than ever,” he says. What’s next Looking ahead, Bich says that he has his eye on a number of potential projects, but his immediate attention will turn closer to home. Specifically, Bich is gearing up for the launch of a foundation that’s close to his heart; one that will support projects in and around local communities to help families with autistic children—with a focus not only on helping parents but siblings of those children too. Bich, a father of four, has an autistic child, and knows firsthand how difficult it can be for the entire family. “I want to help families in our communities go through this differently, with support and structure,” he says. But that’s not all. “I intend to also have professional activities beyond that,” he says, though he remains mum on what, exactly, those could be for now. Looking back, though, Bich is bowing out at a time when his company is profitable, diverse, and growing. “I’m proud of our financial results; we get our investors and stakeholders a very healthy return,” he says. The numbers speak for themselves: Bic’s latest earnings report, released February 19, showed sales and profitability increasing company-wide. As for what’s next for the company, Bich says he plans to work with his successor for a smooth handoff, which should be completed in the fall. “Succession is absolutely a part of business and a part of leadership,” he says. As such, Bich says, he will “pass the pen.” View the full article

Ayrshire resort owned by US president dropped from rota for Britain’s premier tournament after January 6 attack on CapitolView the full article

Authors in two separate Urban Institute papers warn how headcount reductions at the entities could negatively impact borrowers, taxpayers and the housing market. View the full article

Whether you’re managing a project in construction or manufacturing, keeping costs down is paramount. The lower your costs, the higher your profits. It’s as simple as that. This is why cost control techniques are so important in project management and business administration. To understand cost control methods, let’s first define what cost control is and then we’ll explore the steps you can take to implement cost control. There are also a number of cost control techniques that can help, which we’ll also outline. Learn how strategic cost management techniques can help you better manage construction or manufacturing projects. What Is Cost Control? Cost control is a practice performed across businesses in most industries. Cost control works by identifying and reducing expenses to increase the profitability of the company. Cost control as a process begins with estimating costs, making a budget and then implementing cost control methods. Actual financial results are compared with the budgeted expectations and if the actual costs are more than what was budgeted, actions to reduce those costs must be implemented. /wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Cost-Benefit-Analysis-Template.png Get your free Cost Benefit Analysis Template Use this free Cost Benefit Analysis Template for Excel to manage your projects better. Download Excel File Comparing costs is but one way to analyze the financial performance of an organization or project. Through this analysis, companies can make more accurate and informed projections to help them minimize their costs and identify areas where they’re overspending. Depending on the type of business, vendor management can also be part of the cost control process as supplies can be a significant cost and potential area of savings. These costs must also be managed and project management software can help you identify, manage and control costs. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that has real-time Gantt charts that help you track project cost variance. Once you’ve set a baseline on our Gantt chart, the live dashboard automatically collects project costs and displays them in an easy-to-read graph that shows the actual, planned and budgeted costs. Unlike lightweight tools, there’s no lengthy setup required. Once you’ve set up the Gantt chart, you can monitor project costs in real time on views like the project dashboard. /wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Manufacturing-gantt-chart-light-mode-costs-exposed-cta-e1712005286389-1600x659.jpgProjectManager has real-time dashboards to manage cost control. Learn more Cost Control Techniques The more accurate your estimates, the more profitable you’ll be. We’ve already mentioned that, but it’s worth repeating. Estimating can be daunting. It’s far from an exact science, but it’s critical in cost control. We’ve outlined several cost control techniques you can apply to make better cost forecasts. 1. Cost-Benefit Analysis One way to control costs is by not taking on a project that is never going to give you the return on investment you want. That’s where a cost-benefit analysis comes in handy. It’s a way to estimate the strengths and weaknesses of the project to determine if it’s worth taking on the risk. Therefore, it determines if the investment is sound, as in benefits outweighing costs. 2. Earned Value Management Earned value management uses costs, schedule, technical scope and risk to measure project performance against a baseline. This helps to identify issues as well as forecast costs by measuring performance against the planned value, actual cost and earned value. 3. Cost Reduction The best cost control is to reduce costs. There are many ways to implement cost reduction in projects, from proper allocation of resources to mentoring and retaining your team. Project managers should explore all aspects of cost reduction, whether that’s process improvements, reducing project scope or even outsourcing as needed. 4. Cost Accounting Cost accounting is the monitoring, analyzing and recording of variable and fixed expenses related to the production of goods and services. Through this process, project managers can adopt greater productivity measures, make better strategic decisions and keep to their budget. This is all done, as will cost control, to raise the net profit margins through budgeting, forecasting, the price of the product or service and aligning with corporate strategy. 5. Activity-Based Costing This cost control technique assigns overhead and indirect costs to related products and services and recognizes the relationship between costs, overhead and manufactured products. It assigns indirect costs to products less arbitrarily than more traditional methods of cost control. An issue with this type of cost control technique, though, is that indirect costs such as management and office staff salaries can be difficult to assign to a product. 6. Budgetary Control Simply put, budgetary control is the management of income and expenditure. Like many cost control techniques, it’s all about comparing the actual costs against the planned costs to identify if there’s a discrepancy between them. 7. Target Costing Target costs are when a company plans for the price points, product costs and margins it wants to achieve for its new product. If the manufacturing of this product cannot meet these constraints, then the project is shelved. This provides manufacturers with a way to monitor products from the earliest design phase throughout the project’s life cycle to help them invest only in those projects that will increase the company’s profitability. 8. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Total cost of ownership is an estimating process that determines how much money will be spent on an asset over the course of its useful life. That means, from the point of purchase to when the asset is disposed of. This helps to avoid buying assets that won’t bring a return on investment, as the cost to buy, use and maintain is more than the benefit the asset provides. 9. Value Engineering While its focus is broader than just reducing cost, value engineering is used in cost control to optimize the balance between cost, function and quality. It involves analyzing the functions of a project, product or service to identify ways to achieve the desired outcomes at the lowest cost without compromising quality or performance. 10. Job Costing This is primarily used in industries where products or services are customized ,such as construction, manufacturing and professional services. Job costing consits in tracking costs related to specific jobs or projects, making it possible to control and monitor costs on a job-by-job basis. It tracks direct costs, identifies cost overruns, improves cost estimation, helps to allocate indirect costs, monitors performance and more. 11. Cost Variance Analysis Cost variance analysis involves comparing the actual costs incurred in a project or operation to the budgeted or standard costs. It helps identify discrepancies between the planned and actual performance, enabling organizations to take corrective actions to stay within budget, optimize operations and improve overall efficiency. 12. Target Costing Use target costing as a proactive cost control technique. It focuses on managing costs by setting a target cost for a product or service based on its desired selling price and profit margin. The objective is to meet the target cost without compromising quality, functionality or customer satisfaction. This technique is commonly used in industries where competition is fierce, and price sensitivity is high, such as manufacturing and automotive industries. 13. Zero-Based Budgeting This method of budgeting is where every expense must be justified for each new period, starting from zero, rather than relying on previous budgets or historical expenditures. It’s an approach that ensures that every dollar spent is scrutinized and aligned with the organization’s goals, making it a powerful tool for cost control by enhancing cost efficiency, encouraging accountability and promoting better financial decision making. 14. Break-Even Analysis Break-even analysis is an effective cost control technique that helps businesses determine the point at which they cover all their costs and begin to make a profit. It identifies the level of sales needed to break even–i.e., when total revenues equal total costs, and no profit or loss is made. This analysis is crucial for understanding the relationship between fixed and variable costs and helps businesses manage their cost structure and profitability. 15. Life Cycle Costing Another effective cost control technique is life cycle costing, which involves assessing the total cost of a product or project over its entire lifespan, from design and development to operation and disposal. This approach helps organizations make more informed decisions about costs, by not only considering the initial costs but also the long-term expenses related to maintenance, operation and eventual decommissioning or disposal. How to Control Costs Being able to monitor costs in real time is important, but that’s only part of a thorough control cost process. This is a process that needs constant monitoring, but there are steps that you can implement before the project begins to set the stage for controlling costs. Follow these steps to better control costs in your project or business. 1. Identify Your Resource Requirements Controlling costs starts with planning. One of the most costly aspects of any project or business is the resources needed to do the work. This includes labor, but also equipment, materials and anything required to execute tasks. By identifying these resources with the use of a work breakdown structure to identify deliverables and tasks, project managers can list the resource requirements with greater accuracy. 2. Estimate Costs Now that you’ve listed the resource requirements, you’ll want to estimate how much each of those will cost. The more accurate you are, the better, of course. Therefore, you’ll want to meet with the project team as they have the experience and can give you more realistic estimates. There’s also historical data that can help you determine the cost compared to what similar projects cost. Finally, don’t neglect expert opinion. Seek it out. 3. Create a Budget Knowing your deliverables, tasks and resources and having an accurate forecast of costs means that you’re ready to develop a budget. Again, the more accurate the budget, the more likely you can adhere to it and stay profitable. Creating a budget starts by allocating costs to each task on the project schedule. All the activities on a workflow will have a line item cost in the budget. 4. Track & Control Costs Once the project execution phase begins, so does the monitoring and controlling phase. As teams work on their tasks, the project manager will keep track of their work and the associated costs. Setting a cost baseline captures the budget and makes it easier to compare actual costs to the budget to make sure there’s no overspending. If there is, then the schedule or scope needs to be adjusted to make up for the extra cost if you want to keep the project balanced. Free Cost-Benefit Analysis Template One of the best ways to know whether a project is viable in terms of cost is to use a cost-benefit analysis. Download this free cost-benefit analysis template for Excel to determine if a project is viable from a cost perspective. It helps you quickly crunch the numbers and helps determine if the project is worth undertaking. /wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Cost-Benefit-Analysis-Screenshot.jpg Importance of Cost Control In Construction The importance of cost control should be clear, but how does it translate across various industries? Let’s take construction, where cost control is a vital tool to keep expenses under control. This is done by managing labor, materials and overhead costs to keep to the budget. Estimating, as always, is key, but so is monitoring throughout construction otherwise it’s possible to burn through the budget and lose most if not all of a general contractor’s budget. Importance of Cost Control In Project Management As in any industry, cost control in project management follows similar lines of collecting actual costs and comparing them to the planned costs of the project. Therefore, cost control is essential to ensure that you’re not spending too much, minimizing costs and revealing areas in the project where costs are spiking so they can be controlled. Importance of Cost Control In Manufacturing Manufacturing is no different when it comes to reaping the benefits of cost control. It allows manufacturers to identify waste in their production and work towards eliminating it. But it’s not merely during the manufacturing process where cost control can be effective, but also with administrative costs and even in the selling and distribution process. How ProjectManager Helps With Cost Control In order to implement cost control more effectively you’ll want to use project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that delivers real-time data to help project managers make more informed decisions. More than the accuracy of our data is the wide spectrum of our features that give you the power to monitor and control costs to keep projects within the budget and capture overspending quickly so they can be resolved and not negatively impact your profit margin. Manage Labor Costs With Online Timesheets Identifying and tracking resources is an important part of cost control. Labor isn’t only your most important resource but often your most expensive. Our secure online timesheets allow you to monitor the progress that each team member is making on their assigned task to ensure that they’re keeping to the schedule. We also streamline the process by making it easy to carry one task from one week to the next, automatically add them and lock timesheets once submitted. /wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Timesheet-Light-2554x1372-1-e1709159471615-1600x536.png Keep Teams Productive With Workload Charts Being able to monitor your team’s workload helps make sure they’re not overburdened with tasks, which leads to low morale and reduced productivity. Our color-coded workload chart makes it easy to see at a glance who has how many assignments. You can then balance the workload without having to leave the chart, making sure that everyone is working at capacity but not overallocated. /wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Workload-Light-2554x1372-1-1600x860.png There are many other ways to avoid overspending on a project. Our risk management features, for instance, help you identify, track and mitigate risk in your projects, which can put an undue strain on your budget. Task management features keep teams productive and resource management tools help you identify, manage and track resources throughout the project. ProjectManager is online project management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office, on the job site or anywhere in the world. Our collaborative platform lets you share files, comment at the task level and much more. Join teams at companies as diverse as Avis, Nestle and Siemens who are using our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. The post 15 Best Cost Control Techniques appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

The 2025 slate of Oscar nominees recognizes many writers, directors and actors whose scripts and performances don’t necessarily reflect their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, both white, co-wrote “Sing Sing,” a story about rehabilitation through art in a maximum security prison where the characters are almost entirely people of color. Meg LeFauve has now earned her second nomination for penning a script that gives voice the gamut of emotions surging through a young girl in “Inside Out 2.” She’s in her 50s. The director of “Conclave,” Edward Berger, its writer, Peter Straughan, and its lead actor, Ralph Fiennes, are all self-proclaimed lapsed Catholics. Yet they brought to life a political thriller set in the Vatican. “The Brutalist” was written entirely in English, but much of the film’s dialogue is in Hungarian, with two leads who are not native Hungarian speakers. Most screenwriters endeavor to craft characters outside their own backgrounds and experiences. But concerns about authentic language representation and cultural accuracy persist, and accusations of cultural appropriation and lazy research are commonplace. “Emilia Pérez,” for example, has been heavily criticized not only for unrealistic portrayals of gender transition but also for inauthentic depictions of Mexican culture and accents. The film’s director, Jacques Audiard, has even claimed his lack of knowledge of Spanish has been an artistic benefit. He says it gives him “a quality of detachment” to emphasize “emotion” rather than “focus too strongly on the accent, the punctuation.” His lack of interest in precise depictions of language and culture contrasts sharply with our recent research, which shows ample interest from practicing screenwriters in accurately representing dialects and accents in scripts. Wanting to get it right We surveyed over 50 current members of the Writers Guild of America, and they broadly told us that sensitivity to linguistic representation has increased since the 2010s. Several commented that there’s been more commitment to hiring writers who represent the characters’ voices and backgrounds. There’s also more “freedom to include diverse characters and worlds… but a commensurate emphasis on authenticity and a higher bar for what that means,” as one writer explained. “Authenticity” was consistently cited in our survey as a principal consideration when writing dialogue. Other concerns included scripts’ intelligibility, historical accuracy and believability. In most cases, screenwriters aspire to write dialogue that sounds authentic. But it’s not easy – and often requires collaboration to get it right. Writers noted how they’ll adjust their dialogue based on production needs, such as budgetary concerns, input from actors and directors, and feedback from dialect coaches and historical consultants. For example, spec scripts – or noncommissioned film scripts – are written before any casting or production decisions are made. The dialogue in these scripts will likely change once actors and other creatives are attached to the project. Recipes for capturing linguistic nuance In our study, we also reviewed screenwriting manuals published as far back as 1946. Manuals didn’t begin to raise explicit ethical concerns, such as the use of inaccurate linguistic stereotypes in dialogue, until the 1980s. For example, many older films, such as “Gone with the Wind,” often used phonetic spelling in their scripts, with features such as g-dropping – “quittin’” for “quitting” – to mark only the speech of lower-class or racially marginalized characters, despite the fact that all people, regardless of background, have accents. Writing in heavy phonetics is generally discouraged in modern screenwriting. There are practical reasons for this. Scripts are read before they’re seen and therefore must first appeal to the not so general audience of executives who buy them. As one writer explained, “My script is targeted towards them.” Take “Trainspotting.” Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh was written with heavy phonetics to capture the characters’ Scottish dialect: “ah wouldnae git tae watch it.” But the screenplay uses lines without phonetics, such as, “I wouldn’t have bothered.” In this respect, there’s a notable difference in novels and their respective adaptations. One surveyed writer avoids dialectal markers and will “default to standard American English unless there is a reason not to.” That doesn’t mean the actors in “Trainspotting” should speak in an American English accent. Instead, screenwriters might simply indicate the use of language and dialect when describing the scene in a script or, as one surveyed screenwriter explained, “make a note in the parenthetical that ‘Brynn speaks with a heavy West Virginia accent’” to flag the work that “the actor, dialogue coach, and writer will need to do together.” This method is employed in “The Brutalist.” The film is partly in Hungarian, but writer and director Brady Corbet and his Norwegian co-writer, Mona Fastvold, wrote the Hungarian dialogue in standard English. They then used parentheticals to indicate any non-English delivery of dialogue. The film’s stars, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, worked with a dialect coach to hone their accents. “Anora,” which tells the story of an exotic dancer in a whirlwind romance, features characters who speak Russian, Armenian and English with varying degrees of fluency. Even though the characters frequently switch between these languages, the entire script is in unbroken English. Code-switching is simply marked with “Russian,” “Armenian” or “English” in the script before a piece of dialogue. But limiting oneself to standard U.S. English restricts diversity in the written dialogue itself. Some writers may want to use dialect or language to convey character authenticity on the page. Our survey respondents described this as “flavor” – the strategic use of dialectal words or phrases to create distinct voices, with limited phonetics. Jesse Eisenberg, in his Oscar-nominated script “A Real Pain,” lightly blends American English with occasional Yiddish words to great effect: “… landed in Galveston for some fakakta reason,” or “crazy” reason. AI chimes in Attempts at authenticity can become muddied when AI gets involved. When making “The Brutalist,” Corbet controversially used AI technology to refine the movie’s Hungarian dialogue. Some questioned the film’s authenticity due to the use of AI, arguing that nothing can be authentic if it’s achieved artificially. But the film’s creators, including editor and native Hungarian speaker Dávid Jancsó, defended this choice. They argued the technology actually enhanced the language’s authenticity, particularly since Hungarian’s system of vowels and consonants is especially hard for nonnative speakers to capture accurately. Whether writers use phonetics or standard language, and whether producers use AI or dialect coaches, questions of ethics and linguistic authenticity will remain. It’s important to research language choices and dialogue, and to consult the diverse speakers portrayed in scripts. These are among the many essential checks and balances that are becoming bigger parts of the filmmaking process. Chris C. Palmer is a professor of English at Kennesaw State University. Mitchell Olson is an associate professor of screen and TV writing at Kennesaw State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Just because a project is pitched doesn’t mean it’s the right project. Organizations have to explore the proposal and determine if it’s a good fit for them in terms of risk, reward, resources and so on. That’s why there’s a feasibility report. What is a feasibility report? We’ll answer that, show what should be included and even add a feasibility report example to show what it would look like in a real-world scenario. Then, we’ll add links to some related free templates to help with the feasibility study report. What Is a Feasibility Report? A feasibility report in project management is a detailed analysis that evaluates the practicality, risks and potential success of a proposed project before committing significant resources. It helps decision-makers determine whether the project is viable by assessing various factors such as technical feasibility, financial viability, operational capacity and market demand. This report typically includes an analysis of project objectives, required resources, potential risks, estimated costs and expected benefits. It helps identify challenges that may arise and provides recommendations on whether to proceed with the project, modify it or abandon it altogether. By conducting a feasibility report, organizations can minimize risks, optimize resource allocation and improve project planning. It ensures that investments are made in projects that are realistic, profitable and aligned with business goals. Once the project is proven feasible, that’s when it’s time to put away the report and pick up the project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that turns a feasibility report into a project plan that teams can execute with our multiple project views. Project managers can schedule tasks, resources and costs on Gantt charts, which also link dependencies to avoid delays and cost overruns, filter for the critical path and set a baseline to compare the plan against the actual progress in real time. That plan is shared with teams who can execute their work on kanban boards or task lists, while stakeholders stay updated on the calendar view. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2024/04/critical-path-light-mode-gantt-construction-CTA.pngProjectManager’s Gantt chart turns feasibility reports into project plans. Learn more What Should Be Included in a Feasibility Report? A feasibility report provides a comprehensive assessment of a project’s viability by analyzing various critical factors. It helps organizations make informed decisions about whether to proceed with a project, adjust the plan or abandon it. Below are the essential components of a feasibility report. Executive Summary A high-level overview of the report, summarizing key findings, conclusions and recommendations. The executive summary provides stakeholders with a quick understanding of the project’s feasibility without needing to go through the entire document. Project Description, Goals and Objectives Outlines the project’s purpose, scope and intended outcomes. It defines the problem the project aims to solve and the specific goals it seeks to achieve. Resource Requirements Details the human, material and technological resources needed to execute the project. This includes workforce, equipment, facilities and software requirements. Technical Feasibility Evaluates whether the project can be implemented with the available technology, infrastructure and expertise. It examines system compatibility, required innovations and technical risks. Financial Feasibility Analyzes the project’s cost estimates, funding sources, return on investment (ROI) and overall profitability. It helps determine whether the project is financially sustainable. Market Feasibility Assesses the demand for the project’s product or service, target market, competition and potential customer adoption. This ensures that there is a viable market for the project’s success. Operational Feasibility Examines whether the organization has the capabilities, resources and operational structure to execute and sustain the project. It also considers workforce skills and internal process alignment. Scheduling Feasibility Evaluates the estimated project timeline, key milestones and potential scheduling risks. It helps determine if the project can be completed within the required timeframe. Legal and Regulatory Considerations Identifies compliance requirements related to laws, regulations, industry standards and contractual obligations. It ensures that the project aligns with legal frameworks. Environmental and Social Impact Analyzes the potential environmental and societal effects of the project. This includes sustainability factors, ethical concerns, and community impact assessments. Project Assumptions and Constraints Lists any assumptions made during the feasibility study, such as economic conditions, resource availability or technological advancements. It also highlights constraints like budget limitations, regulatory restrictions or workforce capacity. A well-structured feasibility report provides a clear and objective evaluation of a project’s viability, helping stakeholders make informed decisions. /wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Feasibility-report-sample-featured-image.jpg Get your free Project Feasibility Report Sample Use this free Project Feasibility Report Sample for Word to manage your projects better. Download Word File Feasibility Report Example Now that we better understand a feasibility report, including the components that make it up, an example will help put the document in context. Below we imagine a construction project and how the feasibility study report determines the viability of the work. Project Description, Goals and Objectives The proposed project involves the construction of a brand-new hotel building in a prime urban location. The hotel will cater to business and leisure travelers, offering high-end amenities, conference facilities and premium dining options. The objective is to establish a competitive hospitality business that meets market demands, generates consistent revenue and contributes to local economic development. Resource Requirements Resources are people, equipment and anything else needed to execute the project. Below are the resources that are required for this project. Land Acquisition: Prime urban real estate (approximately 50,000 sq. ft.) Construction Materials: Concrete, steel, glass, wood and eco-friendly materials Labor and Workforce: Architects, engineers, contractors and construction workers Technology & Equipment: HVAC, elevators, security systems and IT infrastructure Furniture & Fixtures: High-quality furnishings, kitchen equipment and decor Operational Staff: Management, housekeeping, catering and security teams Technical Feasibility This section evaluates whether a project can be successfully implemented with the available technology, resource capacity and expertise. Structural Design: A modern high-rise with energy-efficient architecture Utilities & Infrastructure: Reliable water supply, electricity and sewage systems Safety Standards: Fire suppression systems, earthquake resistance and emergency exits Smart Hotel Technology: Automated check-in, keyless entry and integrated room controls Financial Feasibility Here, the project’s economic viability is evaluated, such as its costs, funding sources and potential profitability. Estimated Project Cost: $50 million (land, construction and operational setup) Funding Sources: Bank loans, investors and government incentives Projected Revenue: $15 million annually (room bookings, event hosting and dining services) Break-even Analysis: Expected within five years Operational Expenses: Staff salaries, maintenance, marketing and utilities Market Feasibility This assesses whether there is a demand for a product or service in the target market. Target Market: Business travelers, tourists and event organizers Competitor Analysis: Nearby luxury hotels and boutique establishments Market Demand: Growing tourism and corporate event needs in the area Marketing Strategy: Digital campaigns, partnerships with travel agencies and loyalty programs Operational Feasibility This looks at whether the organization has the resources, structure and capabilities to successfully implement and sustain a project. Hotel Management System: Integrated property management software Supply Chain: Reliable vendors for food, linens and other essentials Staffing Plan: Hiring experienced hospitality professionals Customer Service Strategy: 24/7 guest support and personalized experiences Scheduling Feasibility Scheduling feasibility evaluates whether a project can be completed within a reasonable and acceptable timeline. Planning & Design Phase: Six months Permit Approvals: Four-to-six months Construction Phase: Twenty-four months Interior Setup & Staff Training: Six months Grand Opening: Within three years of project commencement Legal and Regulatory Considerations At this point, the feasibility report reviews if the project complies with all applicable laws, regulations and industry standards. Zoning Laws: Compliance with local building regulations Building Permits: Necessary approvals from municipal authorities Health & Safety Regulations: Adhering to hospitality industry standards Environmental Compliance: Waste management and sustainability protocols Environmental and Social Impact This evaluates how a project may affect the environment and surrounding communities. Sustainability Practices: Green building certifications and energy-efficient design Community Engagement: Job creation and collaboration with local businesses Traffic and Infrastructure Impact: Mitigation plans for increased local traffic Waste Management: Recycling initiatives and reduced water consumption Project Assumptions and Constraints Outlines the key factors that are taken as true for planning purposes, as well as the limitations that may impact project execution. Assumptions Demand for premium hotel services will continue to grow Construction costs will remain stable within the estimated budget Regulatory approvals will be secured on time Constraints Potential delays in obtaining permits Supply chain disruptions for materials and equipment Market fluctuations affecting hotel bookings and revenue This feasibility report provides a structured analysis of the proposed hotel construction project to ensure informed decision-making and successful execution. Feasibility Report Sample Reviewing a feasibility report sample can be very helpful as you become more familiar with the process of creating feasibility reports. Download the example above as a feasibility report sample for Word by clicking the image. /wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Project-feasibility-Report-Sample-1.png Related Project Management Templates To help create a thorough feasibility report, try some of these free related templates. They’re only a few of the over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that are available now on our site. These free templates cover every aspect of managing a project, across multiple industries. Feasibility Study Template This free feasibility study template for Word provides the basis of analysis that will result in the feasibility report, which is a written summary of that analysis. This helps pinpoint the logistical, financial and market challenges of a proposed project. Business Case Template A business case is used to show the costs related to the project and whether they’re worthwhile and will deliver ROI. This free business case template for Word works hand in glove with a feasibility report. Cost-Benefit Analysis Template Another way to determine if the proposed project is worth the investment is by using this free cost-benefit analysis template for Excel. It compares what the budget for the project will be against the benefits that it will deliver. How ProjectManager Helps Manage Projects From Start to Finish Templates can be helpful, especially when deciding if the proposed project will be a good fit for the organization. All the free downloadable templates from our site will help with that research. However, once a project has been approved and moves into the planning stage, templates are just not equipped to do the job. They’re static documents and projects are dynamic. That’s when it’s time to put away the Excel spreadsheets and open project management software like ProjectManager. Multiple project views help plan and execute the project, while resource management features and dashboards, reports and more keep the project on track. Robust Resource Management Keep Teams Productive Once human and non-human resources are scheduled on Gantt charts, project managers can onboard teams and set their availability, including PTO, vacation, global holidays, rates and skill sets. This makes it easy to assign tasks to the right person at the right time. Then, check the color-coded workload page to get an overview of resource allocation. This makes it easy to see who is overallocated or underutilized and balances the team’s workload from the same chart. Now, teams can work at capacity without risking burnout. Use the team page to stay updated on the team’s daily or weekly activities, which can be filtered by priority, progress and more. /wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Team-Light-2554x1372-1.png Monitor Progress, Cost and More With Real-Time Dashboards and Reports To ensure that the project is meeting the expectations set by the feasibility report, project managers can first get a high-level view of the progress and performance with real-time project or portfolio dashboards. They’re collecting live data and displaying it on easy-to-read graphs and charts that show key metrics like time, cost, workload and more. For more details, use customizable reports on project status, portfolio status, variance workload, timesheets and more. These reports can be filtered to focus on specific data points or provide a summary and shared with stakeholders to keep them updated. Even our secure timesheets help by tracking labor costs to help keep to the budget. /wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Dashboard-light-mode.jpg Related Project Initiation Content Testing a project to see if it’s worth pursuing is what a feasibility report is for. There are other things project managers can do to figure out if a proposal should be approved and, if it is, how to initiate it. Below are a handful of articles we’ve recently published on our blog that go into those details. Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Quick Guide with Examples Project Selection: Use These 8 Selection Methods Project Initiation: How to Start Your Project Off Right How Project Prioritization Scoring Models Help Organizations How to Start a Project in 10 Steps ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office, out in the field or anywhere else in the world. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. The post Feasibility Report in Project Management (Example & Sample Included) appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

Prime Video has new installments of two familiar series coming in March. First up is season three of The Wheel of Time (March 13), an adaptation of Robert Jordan's fantasy books of the same name. Rosamund Pike stars as sorceress Moiraine Damodred, a member of the powerful Aes Sedai. The season opens with a magical battle between members of the order—viewers will get a three-episode premiere with five weekly episodes to follow. Also in its third season is Bosch: Legacy (March 27)—also an adaptation, this time of Michael Connolly's crime novels. A sequel to Prime Video hit Bosch, the series was originally canceled after its second season but was revived for a third and final installment. Titus Welliver reprises his role as former LAPD detective Harry Bosch working to solve his final case. Prime Video is also releasing Holland (March 27), a mystery thriller starring Nicole Kidman as a teacher and homemaker in an idyllic Michigan town, where mysteries and secrets begin to unravel her life. The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen (of Succession) as Kidman's husband and Gael García Bernal as her close friend. Here are all the originals coming to Prime Video in March. What’s coming to Prime Video in March 2025Available March 6For the Win: NWSL Picture This Available March 13The Wheel of Time S3 Available March 20Tyler Perry's Duplicity Available March 27Bosch: Legacy S3 Holland View the full article

We love our social media, and more frighteningly, we love getting medical information from social media. Almost 20% of Americans say they trust TikTok as much as doctors, even though 45% of the medical information on TikTok is false or misleading. Now, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, the problem goes deeper: Social media might be promoting the overuse of medical tests such as MRIs. In some circles, such tests have even become a luxury status symbol. What the new study found Researchers analyzed a cross-section of 982 posts from account holders with more than 194 million combined followers on Instagram and TikTok. They selected posts referring to five different tests, which have evidence of being overused and failing to improve health outcomes when used for people who don’t need them. The tests included: full-body MRIs early-cancer detection egg reserve tests (which get used as a proxy for fertility) gut microbiome tests low-testosterone blood tests The researchers found that 87% of the posts mentioned the benefits of the tests, 84% had a promotional tone, and 51% encouraged the audience to go get tested. Only 15% mentioned the harms of using the tests, while about 5% minimized the harms involved. A mere 6% of the posts cited evidence, while 34% cited personal anecdotes. Overall, 68% of posters had a financial interest in the test they were promoting. “[Most] posts were promotional, were from account holders with some form of financial interest in promoting the test, and mentioned test benefits. . . . These posts have the potential to mislead the public to getting tested despite the lack of evidence to support these tests and the potential for harms related to overdiagnosis or overuse,” the researchers wrote. View the full article

YouTube revamps mid-roll ads to target natural breaks, offering hybrid placement options that reduce viewer disruptions. The post YouTube Details Changes Coming To Mid-Roll Ads On May 12 appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Different methodologies like PRINCE2 work for different projects, industries, tools and teams. These project management methodologies can be approached rigidly, or can be mixed, where a hybrid project management methodology of two or more are used to respond to the unique aspects of a project environment. Project managers who aren’t based in the United Kingdom might not be intimate with the PRINCE2 methodology of managing a project, which is the UK government standard. Although foreign to some outside of the United Kingdom, there’s still much to be gained from the PRINCE2 project management method, even if it isn’t adopted in its entirety. We’ll go over the main components of the PRINCE2 project management methodology, which are: PRINCE2 Principles PRINCE2 Aspects PRINCE2 Themes PRINCE2 Roles and Responsibilities PRINCE2 Processes PRINCE2 Management Products But before we dive into that, let’s define what PRINCE2 is. What Is PRINCE2? PRINCE2 is a project management methodology that is mostly used in the UK, Australia and European countries. “PRINCE2” stands for Projects IN Controlled Environments, because this method focuses on managing resources and risks by dividing projects into smaller stages, defining clear roles & responsibilities and using seven processes to manage the project life cycle. By organizing the project into logical steps, PRINCE2 demands a project management framework that has an organized and controlled project plan before starting, one that maintains its organization through the project life cycle. The control is achieved by seven PRINCE2 processes that compose a project, from start to finish. That involves planning and scheduling. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software with online Gantt charts that are a perfect fit for the PRINCE2 methodology. Our powerful Gantt charts break project phases into milestones and link all four types of task dependencies to manage your schedule. Once you have a plan in place, set the baseline to capture your progress. Get started today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2022/07/construction-gantt-resources-costs-150-CTA-BUTTON-1.jpgProjectManager has robust Gantt charts to break your project into phases. Learn more. History of PRINCE2 Now that we have an idea of what PRINCE2 is, let’s take a quick look at its origins. First established in 1989 by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), the PRINCE2 method was originally based on PROMPT, another acronym that stands for Project Resource Organization Management Planning Technique, which was created in 1975 and used by the United Kingdom government for its information system projects. PRINCE2 was finally published as a project management methodology in 1996, and surprisingly, it is in the public domain. Seven Principles of PRINCE2 Seven principles are the basis for PRINCE2 methodology. All must be followed for the project management methodology to be considered PRINCE2. These seven principles are a framework for a PRINCE2 mindset and they are as follows. 1. Continued Business Justification The most important document in PRINCE2 is the business case, which is reviewed and revised throughout the life cycle of the project. This is done to make sure the project remains viable. If not, the project ends. 2. Learn From Experience There is a lesson log attached to every project that acts as a repository for lessons learned in previous projects to avoid repeating past mistakes. The lesson log is referred to throughout the project. You can get started with our free lessons learned template. /wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Lessons-Learned-Screenshot-600x199.jpgLessons learned template Free download 3. Roles and Responsibilities Are Defined Project members can take on multiple roles or share a role. Four levels make up the structure of people in a project: corporate, project board, project manager and team. 4. Manage by Stages PRINCE2 is planned and follows a stage-by-stage process. When transitioning between stages the business cast, risk and project plan are all updated. 5. Manage by Exception There are what are called tolerances for each project objective. This creates limits and defines how authority is delegated. If the tolerance is exceeded the management team must decide if that tolerance is redefined. 6. Focus on Products The quality requirements of deliverables are of paramount concern. 7. Tailor to Suit Project Environment The size, complexity, importance, time, risk, etc., or the project environment, is used to tailor the project in the initiation phase and throughout each stage of the project. Six Aspects of PRINCE2 The PRINCE2 methodology identifies six aspects or areas that need to be managed in every project. Project managers need to use KPIs to measure performance goals and project tolerances. Scope: What’s the work needed to complete the project? The details of the project scope should be explained in the project plan. Costs: How much does your project cost? The project costs are detailed in the project plan as well. Timescales: How long will it take to complete your project? Each project phase is explained in the project plan, as well as the project duration. Risk: What are your project risks? You’ll need a risk management approach to determine the mitigation strategies that will be used. Quality: What are the quality requirements of your clients or stakeholders? You’ll need to have quality control and assurance procedures in place to meet quality standards. Benefits: What are the expected benefits of your project? Every project needs a business case and a cost-benefit analysis to explain its purpose and financial or strategic benefits. PRINCE2 Themes PRINCE2 is a widely-used project management methodology that is structured around seven key themes. These themes provide guidance on the essential aspects of project management, ensuring that projects are well-planned, executed and controlled. Here’s a breakdown of each theme. Business Case The business case theme ensures that the project remains viable and worthwhile throughout its lifecycle. It establishes the justification for the project by outlining the benefits, costs, risks and investment required. This theme ensures that the project’s objectives align with the organization’s strategic goals. It is reviewed at key stages to confirm continued business justification, helping stakeholders make informed decisions on whether to proceed, adjust or terminate the project. /wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Business-case-template-word-projectmanager-450x473.jpgBusiness case template Free download Organization This theme defines the project’s structure and roles, ensuring that responsibilities and accountabilities are clearly assigned. It identifies the project’s stakeholders and establishes a project management team with defined roles, including the project board, project manager, and team managers. By setting up a clear organizational hierarchy and communication channels, this theme ensures effective decision making and stakeholder engagement throughout the project. Quality The quality theme focuses on ensuring that the project’s deliverables meet the required standards and satisfy stakeholder expectations. It involves defining quality criteria, quality control measures and quality assurance procedures. This theme emphasizes continuous review and verification of deliverables to maintain consistency and compliance with the agreed-upon standards. It helps prevent costly rework and enhances customer satisfaction by delivering high-quality products. Plans Plans are crucial for defining how objectives will be achieved, specifying the products to be delivered, timelines, costs and resources required. The plans theme guides the development of project, stage and team plans, making sure there is alignment with the project’s objectives. It also supports effective monitoring and control by providing a baseline against which progress and performance are measured. This theme promotes detailed planning to minimize risks and maximize resource efficiency. Risk The risk theme involves identifying, assessing and managing potential threats and opportunities that could impact the project’s success. It ensures proactive risk management by establishing procedures for risk identification, evaluation, response planning and monitoring. By systematically addressing uncertainties, this theme minimizes the impact of threats and maximizes opportunities, supporting informed decision-making and project resilience. Change The change theme manages any alterations to the project’s baseline, such as changes to scope, requirements, or deliverables. It establishes a formal process for recording, assessing, and approving change requests. This theme helps maintain control over changes, ensuring they are evaluated for their impact on cost, time, quality and risk before implementation. It safeguards the project’s objectives and prevents scope creep. Progress Progress monitoring is essential to make sure the project stays on track and meets its objectives. The progress theme provides a framework for tracking and controlling project performance against the plan. It involves setting performance baselines, reviewing progress at predefined intervals and reporting status to stakeholders. This theme supports proactive decision making by highlighting deviations from the plan, enabling timely corrective actions to keep the project on course. PRINCE2 Roles & Responsibilities To create a controlled project environment, roles and responsibilities are clearly defined in the PRINCE2 project management methodology. Here are the main roles that make up a PRINCE2 project management team. Project Manager The project manager is the one who is responsible for managing the project planning, execution, controlling and closure phases. Project Manager Key Responsibilities Assemble a project team and monitor its performance Create a project plan that includes a schedule and budget Communicate with the project board and customers Executive The executive is the ultimate decision maker and is accountable for the project’s success. They ensure that the project remains aligned with business goals and provides value for money. The executive balances the needs of the user and supplier, maintaining overall business justification. They approve funding, authorize key decisions and provide strategic direction, ensuring the project stays on track to deliver expected benefits. Senior User The senior user represents those who will use the project deliverables. They make sure that the requirements are accurately defined and that the project’s outcomes meet user expectations. They provide user feedback, specify user needs and assess the deliverables’ suitability for purpose. They also ensure the final product delivers the anticipated benefits and contributes to achieving business objectives. Senior Supplier The senior supplier represents those responsible for delivering the project’s products. They ensure that the solution is technically feasible and that quality standards are maintained. They manage supplier resources, provide technical guidance and ensure deliverables are produced on time and within budget. Their focus is on ensuring the integrity, functionality and performance of the project’s products. Project Assurance Project assurance roles provide independent oversight to ensure the project remains viable, meets quality standards, and aligns with business goals. They report directly to the project board and monitor business, user and supplier interests. They review project deliverables, verify compliance with standards and ensure risks and issues are managed effectively, maintaining objectivity and safeguarding stakeholder interests. Project Support Project support provides administrative assistance to the project manager and team members. Their duties include maintaining project documentation, tracking progress, managing communication and assisting with risk and issue logging. They also support configuration management and that project management tools are used effectively. This role helps to smooth project operations by organizing resources and maintaining records. Team Manager Depending on the size of your project, you might need a team manager to closely supervise team members and report to the project manager. Customer There’s also a customer, user or supplier involved in the project. This is the person or organization that is paying for the project and will be impacted somehow by its outcome. Customer Key Responsibilities Understand important project management documents such as a project plan, project brief, risk register or business case Provide enough funds to cover the project’s resource requirements Project Board Finally, there’s a project board, which is made up of the customer and business executives, such as a person who represents the user side and another representing the suppliers or specialists involved in the project. Project Board Key Responsibilities The project board members are in charge of the high-level decision-making process. Communicate with the project manager regularly and approve or reject his initiatives Seven PRINCE2 Processes The PRINCE2 project management methodology uses seven processes to manage projects. As PRINCE2 is a controlled environment method, the role of the project manager, project board and customer are defined so everyone’s on the same page. 1. Starting Up a Project (SU) This is where it’s determined whether the project is viable. To do so, a project brief, business case and a detailed stage plan must be created. You should also create a project initiation document, another important PRINCE2 document that summarizes the key aspects of your project. Also, it’s important to do due diligence before the project is executed to save time and money once the project has started. 2. Initiating a Project (IP) During this process, you’ll need to define the project aspects that we mentioned above; scope, costs, timescales, risk, quality and benefits. A project initiation document template can help. /wp-content/uploads/2023/07/project-initiation-document-template-450x438.jpgProject initiation document template Free download 3. Directing a Project (DP) This process is to help the project board be accountable to the project through their decision-making. They have the authority to initiate the project, deliver its product and close the project. They also offer direction and control during the project. Additionally, they work with corporate entities or program management and review post-project benefits. Activities related to this process include authorizing the initiation, the project itself and the stages of the project. Another direction is offered as needed until project closure is authorized. 4. Controlling a Stage (CS) This is where the project manager assigns tasks, monitors that work deals with whatever issues arise and reports on its progress to the project board. Activities in this process include authorizing a work package with the team, reviewing its status and progress, and checking on its quality when complete. One must also review and compare progress to the project plan, capture any issues and risks and act to resolve them. 5. Managing Product Delivery (MP) This process manages the delivery of the project product, controlling the work between the project manager and the team. Activities associated with this process include accepting the work package, executing the work package and delivering the work package to make sure it’s complete. 6. Managing a Stage Boundary (SB) There are two parts to this process: firstly, the project manager provides the project board with an overview of performance, updates the project plan and business case, and creates a plan for the next stage. Secondly, the information provided by the project manager will help the project board review the current stage, approve the next and review the updated plan. Activities include planning the next stage and reporting on the stage end. 7. Closing a Project (CP) This process is about making sure the project achieves its goals and objectives by the deadline. Sometimes project managers prepare the planned closure and the premature closure, but that’s not required. Mandatory activities include handing over the product, evaluating the project and recommending its closure to the project board to officially close it out. /wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Project-Closure-Screenshot-450x368.jpgProject closure template Free download PRINCE2 Management Products PRINCE2 management products are documents created and maintained throughout the project lifecycle to support planning, control and communication. They help make sure that projects are well-organized, transparent and aligned with business objectives. These products are grouped into three categories: baseline management products, records and reports. PRINCE2 Baseline Management Products Baseline management products are established at the beginning of a project or stage and serve as a reference point for tracking progress and managing change. They define the scope, quality, cost and timeline, providing a benchmark against which project performance is measured. Business Case: The business case justifies the project’s existence by detailing the benefits, costs and risks. It ensures that the project remains aligned with strategic goals and provides value for money throughout its lifecycle. Project Brief: The project brief outlines the project’s purpose, objectives, scope and constraints. It provides an overview of the project and helps stakeholders understand the project’s goals and strategic alignment before detailed planning begins. Project Initiation Document (PID): The PID is the foundation of the project, detailing the project’s scope, objectives, governance structure, quality requirements, risks and controls. It serves as the main reference for project execution and decision-making. Benefits Review Plan: This document specifies how and when the project’s benefits will be measured and reviewed after completion. It ensures that the project’s outcomes deliver the anticipated value and supports long-term strategic objectives. PRINCE2 Records Records are dynamic documents that capture ongoing project information, helping project managers track events, issues and risks. They provide a historical account of the project, supporting decision making and lessons learned. Risk Register: The risk register documents potential threats and opportunities that could impact the project. It records risk assessments, mitigation strategies, and the status of each risk, enabling proactive risk management. Issue Register: This register tracks issues that arise during the project, such as changes, concerns or conflicts. It records the description, impact, decision and status of each issue to ensure proper resolution. Quality Register: The quality register tracks quality checks and reviews conducted throughout the project. It documents the planned and actual results, to make sure that deliverables meet predefined quality standards. Lessons Log: The lessons log captures experiences, successes and challenges encountered during the project. It helps the team learn from past activities and supports continuous improvement in future projects. Daily Log: The daily log is an informal diary maintained by the project manager to record day-to-day events, observations and decisions. It captures details that may not be included in formal reports but are relevant to project management. PRINCE2 Reports Reports provide regular updates to stakeholders, delivering transparent communication and informed decision making. They summarize project performance, progress and issues, supporting governance and control. Highlight Report: The highlight report provides the project board with regular updates on project status, progress, risks and issues. It highlights key achievements, upcoming activities and any exceptions or concerns. Checkpoint Report: This report is used by team managers to update the project manager on team-level progress and performance. It tracks the status of assigned tasks and identifies any challenges or risks. End Stage Report: The end stage report is prepared at the end of each project stage, summarizing the stage’s achievements, performance against the plan and lessons learned. It helps the project board decide on proceeding to the next stage. End Project Report: The end project report provides a comprehensive summary of the project, including performance against the baseline, achieved benefits and lessons learned. It evaluates the project’s success and informs future initiatives. PRINCE2 Certification PRINCE2 has a course of study that leads to a certification in the methodology. The course requires the user to take the training with an accredited training organization and then pass an exam. It can be done in person or online. There are four levels of certification in the PRINCE2 project management methodology: PRINCE2 2017 Foundation PRINCE2 2017 Practitioner PRINCE2 Agile Foundation PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner Prices for the certification course and exam range from $550 to around $1,000 USD, depending on which level and certified training organization you choose. PRINCE2 vs. PMP There are as many project management certification programs and it can be difficult to decide which ones you need as a professional project manager. Without a doubt, one of the most popular project management certifications it’s the project management professional (PMP) title awarded by the project management institute (PMI). So which project management certification it’s best for you? Basically, these certifications differ in that they offer two different project management frameworks. PMP requires proficiency in the PMBOK Guide to Project Management Book of Knowledge, published by the Project Management Institute (PMI), while PRINCE2 requires knowledge of all the principles, aspects and processes. Therefore, research both project management methodologies and see which is the best fit for you. Some industries prefer one framework over the other. PRINCE2 is more used in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, while PMP is used more in the United States, Canada and the Middle East. How ProjectManager Helps Implement the PRINCE2 Methodology PRINCE2 is a project management methodology to manage projects and bring them in on time, within budget and with a quality deliverable. Whether you use PRINCE2 or a more agile framework to run your project, the goals are the same. It doesn’t matter how you do it, using ProjectManager helps you do it better. Real-Time Updates for Better Tracking Our project management software is cloud-based, which means that when statuses are updated that information is instantly reflected across the project management tool. Project managers can make data-driven decisions. There is a high-level view on the dashboard for tracking progress and reporting features to drill down into the data for a more granular look. /wp-content/uploads/2024/05/portfolio-dashboard-screenshot-lightmode.png Multiple Project Views What if your team isn’t working in PRINCE2? Our software acts like a bridge linking traditional project management methodologies to more agile frameworks. For example, our kanban board view visualizes workflow and allows teams to build backlogs and manage sprints, even as project managers control the overall project by using PRINCE2. /wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Kanban-task-card-moving-manufacturing-order-management-light-mode.png Control your project no matter how you manage it. ProjectManager has the flexibility to work with PRINCE2 or any method you prefer to run your project. Whether you use PRINCE2 or another methodology to manage your project, you’ll need tools to control the work through all of its stages. ProjectManager is online project management software that works with multiple project management methodologies. From its real-time dashboard to online Gantt charts, you hold the reins. See how it can help you by taking this free 30-day trial today! The post What Is PRINCE2? Principles, Aspects, Roles & Processes appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

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Time is ticking to file your taxes before April 15, 2025. If you've already do so, congrats! Now you can kick back and await that refund, right? Sure—but your relief will be short-lived. Once tax season rolls around next year, you'll again find yourself frantically searching for receipts, statements, and other documentation needed to file an accurate return. Instead of accepting the annual scramble, you can get ahead of the game by using a spreadsheet to track all your tax-related information throughout the year. And there's no better time to start than right now—when your tax knowledge is fresh as can be—to make your spreadsheet and start logging things away for next April. Make your own spreadsheet—or download this template I've created a basic template to get you started here. And I mean basic—this is for people who essentially just want to convert their Form 1040s into a spreadsheet, so all your yearly info is one accessible, editable location. I've included different tabs depending on what you want to track and just how thoroughly you want to track it. For instance, the first tab is a simple table that turns different lines on your Form 1040 into rows of data—making the information easily accessible from year to year. Another tab allows you to clearly list out your income and deductions throughout the year. I've even included a tab dedicated to home office expenses, if that applies to you. There might be some redundancies or glaring omissions based on your personal situation, so I urge you to take what I've given you and run wild with it. It's different strokes for different folks, and different spreadsheets for different...freaks. (It's a slant rhyme.) Basics to include on your tax spreadsheetYou can expand on the template above, or start from scratch—whatever allows you to get the most out this system. Give it a clear name like "2025 Tax Records" so you can easily reference it later. Remember, the goal is to have a single file where you can input and update information and keep everything centralized. To get started with a barebones tax tracking spreadsheet, create separate sections or tabs for different categories of tax information. At minimum, you'll want sections for: Income. This will track income from jobs, self-employment, investments, retirement distributions, etc. Deductions. List out anything you plan to itemize or claim as a deduction, such as mortgage interest, charitable giving, medical expenses, etc. Tax credits. Track estimated expenses that may qualify for a tax credit, like education costs, childcare, etc. Prior year tax documents. Keep a record of last year's tax return details and any carryover items. How to use your tax spreadsheetWithin each section, create rows and columns to track the details you need for tax time. For example, under Income you may want columns for: Date earned Income source/employer Amount earned Tax withholdings For deductions, you may have columns like: Date paid Expense category (medical, mortgage interest, charity, etc.) Amount Make updating your information a habitAs you earn income throughout the year, be diligent about entering the details into your income section right away, while it's all still fresh. Do the same with potential deductions as you incur those expenses. You can update your spreadsheet weekly, monthly, or whenever is convenient, as long as you stick to a routine. Keep digital copies of all your documentsAny time you receive tax documentation—like W2s, 1099s, donation receipts or mortgage interest statements— save digital copies and attach or link them within your spreadsheet file. This creates a handy archive of all your tax records in one spot. Using a spreadsheet to meticulously track your tax information throughout the year will save you the inevitable time and stress of having to reconstruct it all at the last minute. While staying organized requires diligence, that small effort goes a long way when tax season arrives. Your future self will appreciate having these detailed records ready to go. From the most thorough travel plans, to excruciatingly detailed journals, to elaborate to-do lists: If you have a goal, that goal needs a spreadsheet. View the full article